Estimating the capital costs of life extension for fossil-fuel steam plants

Technical Report · Fri Aug 19 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:7119921

In the past, electric utilities built new plants to meet growth in the demand for electricity or to replace old, inefficient plants. Today, utilities are considering other options for meeting future demand, such as conservation programs, load management, purchase of nonutility generation, bulk power purchases, and repowering and life extension (refurbishment) of existing plants. All of these options will play a role in utilities' efforts to meet the demand for electricity. The purpose of this report is to estimate life-extension capital costs for use by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its forecasting models. A methodology is developed to estimate the overnight capital costs of life extension for fossil-fuel steam plants and to estimate average regional and national life-extension costs. The report discusses the reasons for the current interest in life extension and describes the factors that might influence a utility's decision to life-extend. No attempt is made to compare life extension with other options for meeting demand. In this study, life extension refers to investments made to maintain the operating status of a plant at acceptable levels of availability and efficiency beyond its originally anticipated retirement date. For modeling purposes, refurbishment is assumed to extend the life of a plant approximately 20 years, with availability and efficiency declining over time. More extensive activities, such as repowering a pulverized coal plant with a fluidized bed system or modifying a boiler to use other fuels, are not considered in this report. 8 figs., 17 tabs.

• Research Organization: USDOE Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC. Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels
• OSTI ID: 7119921
• Report Number(s): DOE/EIA-0509; ON: DE88016487
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200104* -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Components
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
AGING
C CODES
COMPUTER CODES
CONSTRUCTION
COST ESTIMATION
DATA
DIAGRAMS
ECONOMICS
ELECTRIC POWER
ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
ENERGY SOURCES
FLOWSHEETS
FOSSIL FUELS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
FUELS
INFORMATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
POWER
POWER PLANTS
RETROFITTING
SERVICE LIFE
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS